IF YOU'RE A GUY GOING TO a spring formal anytime this weekend, why don't you grab some style? While most Harvard women have a plethora of choices from gowns to shoes to jewelry to shades of lipstick, men just don't have much choice in what they wear. Sure, some men bust out their granddad's hip blue suede tux from the attic for that extra-special occasion, but for the most part, they're encompassed in a sea of black on black. What to do for some variation? Truly nothing says "I'm hip, I'm with it, I'm tres chic" like a cane. Decorative canes were last in style back in the 1920s, and with swing making a renaissance, canes can't be far behind.

Tony Vo, manager of Classic Tuxedo on Bow Street, doesn't think a cane comeback has much of a chance. "People are too violent," he says. "If they brought canes, they would hit each other." Nevertheless, he has a stockpile of canes in the back room of his store. His personal pick is simple in its elegance--black with white tips--resembling most closely a magic wand. Keezer's near MIT also offers a similar selection at a slightly greater hassle.

It's no wonder people aren't sporting canes these days. After all, to truly capture the essence of puma, one must travel to a flea market overseas (or Mayfair) to procure a chiseled wooden cane with a carved jackal as the handle. Yeah, baby.

Still, if a trip to India is not in your near future and/or you missed last Sunday's Mass. Ave extravaganza, but you still want to be a trendsetter, gentlemen, it's off to the Cambridge tuxedo joints. For $8 you can be David Copperfield for as long as you want--on that thought, maybe you should just rent a funky vest.